Big is beautiful for artist Bharti Kher

Source South China Morning Post by Kylie Knott
In January she staged an exhibition at Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum, her first major solo show in Asia, charting 15 years of her artistic career. "I was so happy to do that show. It was an amazing space in a natural history museum and I really had so much freedom to show what I wanted to show."
> read more

UAB presents Indian art, Japanese prints in two exhibitions

Source University of Alabama by Shannon Thomason
“Objects of Authority: Embroideries and Other Contemporary Arts from Western India,” curated by UAB Assistant Professor of Art History Cathleen Cummings and co-curated by UAB Associate Professor of English Cynthia Ryan, will feature approximately 40 works of art produced in rural contexts in India over the past 50 years. Older, heirloom embroideries from Gujarat will be juxtaposed with those produced in the last few years under the aegis of Indian nongovernmental organizations to highlight the effects of commodification on artistic production and the aesthetic results.
> read more

Photographer Manjari Sharma Transforms Hindu Deities Into Contemporary Photographs

Source Huffington Post by Priscilla Frank
I started going to the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio and over time I just realized an incredible similarity between temple and museum. You build up this expectation before entering a museum and have these wishes you place before a piece of art, all this respect. Sometimes you go in and you don't really have your Darshan, the piece doesn't call out to you like you hoped. In my work, for me, I found that suddenly my photography and my spirituality are understanding each other. In a strange way, they're both about devotion.
> read more

Peintures Warli à la Maison de l’Inde

Source Cité International Universitaire de Paris par Pascale Dejean
Lorsque l’agence d’architecture de Florence Lipsky et Pascal Rollet réalise la Maison de l’Inde à la Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, elle propose de donner au projet une dimension artistique en lien avec la culture indienne. En leur temps, la Maison des étudiants d’Asie du sud-est, la Maison du Japon ou encore la Résidence Lucien PAYE avaient su révéler des artistes talentueux qui mettaient leur production artistique au service d’un projet architectural, renforçant l’identité culturelle de la maison. L’architecte renoue donc, à travers son bâtiment résolument contemporain, avec une longue tradition de la Cité internationale. Associant à sa démarche la direction de la Maison de l’Inde, elle fait appel à Hervé PERDRIOLLE, spécialiste de l’art tribal contemporain indien et notamment de la peinture Warli, afin de doter les cuisines collectives de vastes peintures murales.
> lire plus

Contemporary art is dead, long live the contemporary arts!

"Contemporary art" is a singular concept which designates art from the end of World War II to the late 1970s, whereas "contemporary arts" is a pluralistic concept that designates art from the end of the 1970s to the present. (From an article by Hervé Perdriolle for the 30 years of the Fondation Cartier in Cartier Art magazine No. 36-2014)
> read more

L'art contemporain est mort, vive les arts contemporains !

L'art contemporain est un concept singulier qui désigne l'art de la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale à la fin des années 1970, les arts contemporains est un concept pluriel qui désigne l'art de la fin des années 1970 à nos jours (extrait de l'article d'Hervé Perdriolle pour les 30 ans de la Fondation Cartier dans le magazine Cartier Art n°36-2014).
> lire plus

A stark symbol of protest

Source Livemint by Chanpreet Khurana
Bharti Kher may have unleashed the potential of bindis as a medium in Indian contemporary art expression, but a new social activist group is now making the simple beauty accessory its own “symbol of soft protest” against child marriage. Last month, the No Child Brides movement and non-governmental organization Child Survival India (CSI) unveiled an interactive art piece at the India Habitat Centre (IHC) in the Capital. The artwork, made with 39,000 white bindis—a bindi each for the 39,000 underage girls who get married every day around the world—pictured a 15-year-old from Jharkhand who is resigned to the fact that she will be wed before she turns 18.
> read more

The Road Less Taken

Source The Indian Express by Pallavi Pundir
The brief stretch at Lado Sarai village’s F lane is no stranger to the hustle and bustle of its many young and contemporary art galleries. Galleries such as Abadi Art Space, Exhibit 320, Latitude 28 and Wonderwall have, over the years, transformed the rustic neighbourhood with their intervention, for accessible and experimental art. Just as we enter what is popularly called the “art district”, the road bifurcates and leads one well inside a new address. Barely three days old, Art District XIII is the latest addition to the burgeoning art hub, and the aforementioned road is not just metaphorical.
> read more

Sudarshan Shetty: the collector of untold stories

Source Hindustan Times by Aasheesh Sharma
When he is not listening to Hindustani classical music set to Kabir's poetry at his windswept penthouse, Sudarshan Shetty, 52, likes to walk the older neighbourhoods of Mumbai. On an average day, says Shetty, he gets out at 10am and there is no set time for his return. His preferred haunts in Maximum City, says the celebrated installation and multimedia artist, are second-hand furniture markets such as Chor Bazaar and used-toys stores near Crawford Market.
> read more

Six Works To See At The Fifth And Final 50th Anniversary Show At Chemould

Source Mumbai Boss
For the fifth and final show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Chemould Prescott Road Gallery, curator Geeta Kapur conjures up for the viewer the “Floating World”. This she nimbly accomplishes by not only presenting floating objects in the literal sense as with Jayashree Chakravarty’s paper cocoon or Hema Upadhyay’s matchstick chandeliers, but also in the sense of being untethered, of unbelonging, of falling into oblivion from loss of self or perspective. Here are six works that brilliantly encompassed these many narratives.
> read more

Formative to Recent: Jogen Chowdhury retrospective Kolkata

Source Matters of Art
The journey of an artist seems to be never-ending. There is always a possibility to grow and evolve at every breath of experience in an artist’s life. And a creator in his/her thriving spirit loves to hold back the innocence of life and give birth to something new every moment till the end of the journey of life. At 75, Jogen Chowdhury seems to be in his blooming youth with his evolutionary journey in the field of art and aesthetics. And to keep up to that spirit, saluting this pioneer creator CIMA Gallery of Kolkata has arranged for a retrospective show of exclusive works of Jogen Chowdhury.
> read more

House of Dreams

Source Matters of Art by Georgina Maddox
The connotations of the act of sleeping have often been imbued with negative import; take for instance the Spanish artist FranciscoGoya’s etching, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. The etching that was created between 1797 and 1799 captures the artist asleep at his desk, surrounded by owls and bats, creatures that are considered symbols of folly and ignorance in Spain. It is said that Goya created this work as a critique of the corrupt and ignorant Spanish society of the time. Furthermore the work has been referenced by many contemporary artists and is seen as an important metaphor of dark and troubled times.
> read more

Pourquoi le miracle indien se fait toujours attendre

Source Le Monde par Julien Bouissou
Le sous-continent n'a pas été épargné par les turbulences qui ont frappé d'autres émergents : fuite de capitaux à l'annonce de la normalisation progressive de la politique monétaire américaine, chute des devises, déficit accru de la balance des paiements. Mais la situation s'améliore, à la faveur notamment de la politique du nouveau gouverneur de la Banque centrale. Optimiste, le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) prévoit une croissance de 5,4 % en 2014 et de 6,4 % en 2015. De fait, le potentiel de l'Inde est impressionnant. A condition qu'elle surmonte les obstacles en tout genre qui brident son dynamisme.
> lire plus

Inde les 5 enjeux d'une élection sous tension

Source Le Nouvel Observateur par Sarah Halifa-Legrand
Et si la possible victoire du BJP pouvait être perçue comme une bonne nouvelle ? Certains experts posent aussi la question en ces termes : avec la fin de la quasi hégémonie congressiste, le temps de l’alternance politique est-il venu pour l’Inde ? Autant de raisons qui font que le célèbre historien Ramachadra Guha garde son optimisme, dans une tribune publiée dans dans le quotidien "The Telegraph" : "Il est possible qu’en mai 2014 nous ayons un Premier ministre arrogant et sectaire au lieu du Premier ministre faible et incompétent que nous avons maintenant. Mais la démocratie indienne, pour ne pas dire l’Inde elle-même, va survivre."
> lire plus

Bilan pétaradant sur Drawing Now

Source Le Quotidien de l'Art par Roxana Azimi
Pas si mal. Alors que l’on pouvait légitimement s’interroger sur la capacité du marché français à absorber la même semaine deux foires d’art contemporain, l’une généraliste, Art Paris, l’autre de niche, Drawing Now, les résultats furent dans l’ensemble corrects. Les plus à plaindre sont les exposants installés au sous-sol de Drawing Now : faute d’une signalétique adaptée, qui ne s’est mise en place qu’en fin d’après-midi, peu de visiteurs descendaient au début les marches. Malgré tout, le spécialiste en art tribal indien Hervé Perdriolle (Paris) a cédé très vite le plus beau dessin de son stand, un petit Ladoo Bai d’une fraîcheur inouïe.

Inde: la plus grande élection démocratique du monde dès le 7 avril

Source RFI
C'est la plus grande élection démocratique du monde : 815 millions d'électeurs sont appelés à s'exprimer en Inde entre le 7 avril et le 12 mai pour élire leurs députés siégeant à la Chambre basse. La commission des élections vient d'annoncer le planning pour ces cinq semaines de scrutin, pendant lesquelles l'Etat va déployer des moyens gigantesques. Si on devait comparer, le simple corps électoral indien est plus nombreux que les populations de l'Union européenne et des Etats-Unis réunis : 815 millions d'électeurs, c'est 100 millions de plus que lors des dernières législatives, il y a cinq ans.
> lire plus

Death Becomes Him

Source The Indian Express by Pallavi Pundir
Shivan’s earlier years — as a student at the Delhi College of Art — have been eventful as well. When the etching department refused to give him Etching for MFA, he created the “Rossetta” technique, employing cactus thorn, paper and snake poison to create miniaturist and classical style of drawings. Last year, it was exhibited for the first time by Parisian gallery Hervé Perdriolle. “Transformation of the medium is more important than the medium itself, be it the taxidermy of poison and cactus pulp on paper,” says Maskara.
> read more

Spring Brings Outsider Art Fair to New York

Source Digital Journal
For twenty-one years, the Outsider Art Fair has been the world’s foremost annual show of Outsider, Self-Taught, and Folk Art. And for twenty-one years, the Outsider Art Fair took place in winter. In 2014, for the first time, the Fair will take place in the spring, from May 8–11 at Chelsea’s Center 548, the former home of the Dia Art Foundation, located at 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011. These dates coincide with the New York edition of Britain’s Frieze Art Fair. “For anyone who has been paying attention to what’s going on in the art world, theOutsider Art Fair is a must-see event,” says Andrew Edlin CEO of Wide Open Arts. Paris’ Hervé Perdriolle, who played a pivotal role in curating the Cartier Foundation’s groundbreaking Histoires de Voir exhibition in 2012, also makes his New York debut with a booth comprised solely of self-taught artists from India.
> read more